The only good thing about our current healthcare system is the fact that they can't turn you away for pre-existing conditions. Some people are lucky enough to get cheap healthcare rates even though the care is extremely, extremely basic. Others who might make the same wages as those people are denied the cheap healthcare while others get the most ridiculous payment plans imaginable. They wanted me to pay $368 a month just for myself when I was making only $600 at the time. We just need a super upheaval type of reform. Of everything.

Isn't it strange that any reform in the US that even slightly indicates a social reform towards more equality is instantly torpedoed by the republicans right wing.
And these 'extremists' use almost exactly the same words for the last 60 years for that purpose (ie that's communism/socialism, better dead than red, only a dead commie is a good commie, yada-yada-yada...)
And if a US president forces it through somehow the reps try to so thoroughly veto, maul, pulp, and grind it down in Congress that even the best laid plans are turned into an unrecognizable mass of a slushy goo that nothing of its original intentions are left and only the worst parts remain.

And then, only a few months after having torpedoed such a plan these same Reps then go out, single out one or two incidents where something is now a LOT worse than before, and snidely report through their privately owned news networks that 'Obamacare/whatever-other-plan-was-torpedoed made 'EVERYTHING' a lot worse. And then have the audacity to pin the failure of the new system on the originator of the plan.
Nice work. Great system.
How do you ever believe that people will come to trust each other if the head honchos demonstrate the exact opposite of trustworthyness?

BTW: it's not much better in Germany, but at least we got the chance of voting for other parties or even founding our own local parties, AND see them represented at least on a local community level.

@Karuda
I guess that comes from an economic view,as the funds to pay for universal healthcare will come from taxes,limiting income and therefore,what one can do.Now yes,wealth does not always equate freedom,but in most cases, there's still the cost,such as buying a new boat or going on vacation.
It'd be ok in countries where it's agreed that giving up a bit of personal wealth is worth it for the good of society,but it doesn't quite fly here.

@chaosgirl13 A lot of us who work in health care believe differently. It's cheaper for people to get insured through the ACA and see their own primary care doctors or go to a clinic than be uninsured and use the emergency room as their primary contact with health care. The poorest and uninsured get treated in the ER anyway without paying courtesy of the Hill-Burton Act. The poor with a bit of money, well, ER bills are expensive.

My husband got laid off a while back, and COBRA is expensive, so we're grateful for the ACA. We have comprehensive, affordable insurance. Utterly necessary since I'm disabled.

girlfromthebasement, I have wanted to move to Scandinavia for years, especially Norway. I expect it's very likely I someday will. My girlfriend has a disability, too, so I know what you mean. It's tough to move to another country for many reasons, and especially when it's a country with immigration laws as tough as exist in Scandinavia. It helps that I am proficient in Norwegian, both for immigration purposes (it's not a big difference there, but some), and for me adjusting (it's a big difference there). I just haven't done it yet, but I am sure it'll happen someday. I just lost my car, and that's really making me want to move, it's SO much easier to live in Norway without a car than it is in the US.